Hi there,

I have my friends camcorder (DCR-DVD7E), i have Sony Vegas, and also Adobe Encore to make my dvd.

Im doing a DVD for my bro who is in the gulf.....however...........

After Shooting my clips, just to mess around and get used to it - i coudnt see any of the clips when i placed the disc into my dvd drive (I have a Fujitsi Siemens Laptop, with Dual DVD Writer) - but it didn't see any files on my dvd disc - so, i thought maybe finalising the disc would help this,

So, i did this - then tried to view the disc on a sony dvd player connected to a tv - it didnt play, however, when i plaed the dvd into my desktop pc (packard bell) the dvd played through intervideo DVD no problems - like a normal dvd.....

Basically - i need advice as to what to do, so i can edit these clips in sony vegas 5.0 - or how i can convert these files (which i cant quite see on the disc) to a managable format, like an avi or similar?

On the disc is the following:

DVD_RTAV (Folder)
> VR_MANGR.BUP (file)
> VR_MANGR.IFO (file)
> VR_MOVIE.VRO (file)

.Sys-Reserved-RW-Bitmap.GROW (file)

I have no idea what these are

Also, im not too sure how the whole finalising process works - i have finalised my disc, but i can still record onto it......BUT, i can "de-finalise" it......

So confusing, i know!

thanks alot for any help,

Neil

Ok, the file structure:
DVD_RTAV (Folder)

This is the overall folder for video.

VR_MANGR.BUP (file)
> VR_MANGR.IFO (file)

These two are information files that tell other programs and players what is in the folder and where it is.

> VR_MOVIE.VRO (file)
These are the actual MPEG2 video files that you recorded. When you finalised the program wrote a "container" around the MPEGs to allow playback.


Sys-Reserved-RW-Bitmap.GROW (file)
This one lets the cam know data about the disc so that you can do limited editing on the disc while it is unfinalised and still in the cam.

This leads us to the main point here: You are recording in VR mode which is a different system that allows more flexibility to edit the files that are on the disc in the cam as welll as create play lists.
Finlaising was CORRECT, you need to do that so that any other player or computer DVD reader can access the files and know what to do with them. All finalising does is complete the information files IFO and BUP and write the container file around the MPEGs.

If you are using Vegas (I am not familier with it) there should be a function that allows you to "Import DVD/VR." This function should open a dialogue box that you can use to navigate to the DVD_RTAV folder. Then you select that and the program "should" (hey. It IS Sony!) then import the individual MPEG files off the disc and on to a folder in your hard drive. You should then be able to edit the MPEGS how you want.

Hi There,

thanks for the reply.

there doesnt appear to be any such option in Vegas 5.0 - so im downloading a trial of vegas 6.0, and hopefully this should sort me out.

Hoever, i have since recorded more video onto this disc (after it being finalised, which i didnt think possible) - but, this is now making my disc not readable again by my pc

Is there no way of editing video without finalizing the disc all the time?

many thanks,

Neil

While you are in VR mode on the cam you can keep adding scenes and deleting them at will. However when you need another reader to be able to access the files (like in your computer) you need to place instructions on the disc to let that reader know where everything is. That process is called finalising and needs to be done in most cases.